In some digital printing systems there can be a discrepancy between a digital dot area—the size of an ink dot intended to be generated by a printing apparatus—and the actual printed dot area created on the printing media. This discrepancy can lead to detrimental effects in the quality of the resultant image. For example, a printer or press generally employs a fixed number of inks (for example, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 inks) and mixes different ink dots having different dot areas to achieve many more colors. If the printed dot areas are incorrect, the resulting colors or images appear incorrect.
In order to correct for this discrepancy, a dot gain table may be used to relate a physical dot area printed on a substrate to a digital dot area. To populate this table, a page or swatch may be printed using digital dot areas for each color or ink. The printed dots are then measured. In this manner, a dot gain table is generated, with points between measured points being interpolated from the measured data. In operation, the printing apparatus uses the dot gain table to print a desired dot area. To retain color calibration, the process needs to be repeated for each color separation.